It is well known that various containers for goods must have a lid which seats securely and positively. A lid for such a container is necessary so that the goods, when transported, do not dislodge the lid; or the goods, when displayed, indicate a non-tampered condition. A non-tampered or a tampered condition can thus be established by the "tamper-evident" closure.
In order to mass produce such containers, the lid and the body of the container must be so shaped as to allow proper seating of the lid on the container. Typically, today's small size containers are produced from plastic materials which have a reasonably good flexibility. Plastic materials allow diverse shaping of the container body for reception of the lid, as well as the shaping of a complementary lid.
A typical example of such plastic container is described in U.S. Pat. 4,646,933, which discloses various arrangements for seating a lid on a container, as well as for providing positive venting and sealing of such containers.
When placing a seal around such container or providing a tamper-evident closure, it is necessary that a sealing strip is properly seated on the container. Moreover, it is necessary that the closure seal, such as a sealing strip with a tear tab and a tear strip, is precisely placed on the container. It is also necessary that the sealing strip be properly placed on the container at high speed. A novel machine for circumferentially proper placement of a seal on a container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,622. This patent and the previously mentioned patent are incorporated by reference herein.
As a consequence of the high speed production cycles needed for today's competitive packaging, the sealing strips must be spoolable in fairly large diameter spools. Thus, it now requires that the pressure-sensitive, spooled closure seals are properly carried on a carrier strip so as to allow proper high speed sealing of a closure on a container.
Tear tabs which embody a tear strip or strings have, according to the prior art, a fairly thick central section for the tear strip or string. Various layers which are used for the sealing of the closure make it difficult to place accurately a seal on such containers or to seal properly such containers, because the spooled sealing strip is displaced sideways as the spool is wound up.
As the initial sealing strip placement on a container must be very accurate and as the sealing strip must be peeled away from a carrier strip, improper sideway displacement and movement greatly affects the sealing strip location on a container.
Hence, the present invention is to eliminate and/or minimize the above recited problems.
Various embodiments disclosing prior art sealing tabs or sealing strips have been shown in the art, and Applicants are aware of the following sealing devices, tabs or strips: U.S. Pat. No. 1,032,026 dated July 9, 1912 to E. H. Roden; U.S. Pat. No. 1,180,541 dated Apr. 25, 1916 to E. H. Roden; U.S. Pat. No. 2,120,629 dated June 14, 1938 to H. Schunemann; U.S. Pat. No. 3,089,634 dated May 14, 1963 to H. L. Heise et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,300,118 dated Jan. 24, 1967 to E. E. Owens; U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,261 dated Dec. 10, 1974 to N. H. Moore; U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,018 dated Mar. 25, 1975 to James A. Donnay; U.S. Pat. No. 4,009,793 dated Mar. 1, 1977 to Minesinger et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,929 dated May 30, 1978 to Bruce E. Krane; U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,943 dated Jan. 20, 1987 to G. D. Bennett; U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,485 dated Mar. 3, 1987 to Roy E. Nelson.
The above devices are not believed to disclose the unique sealing strip and carrier utilization or the sealing strips disclosed herein as articles of manufacture, or the sealed container in combination with the sealing strip as an article of manufacture.